Numerous types of industrial equipment include heavy casings surrounding moving and/or rotating components. For example, a typical gas turbine may include a turbine section having alternating stages of fixed nozzles and rotating buckets and a turbine casing generally surrounding the turbine section in order to contain the hot gases of combustion flowing past the various stages of nozzles and buckets.
When a maintenance operation needs to be performed on a gas turbine, it is often necessary that a section of the turbine casing be removed. For example, it is common to remove the upper half of a turbine casing to allow maintenance workers to inspect and/or replace nozzles/buckets and/or to perform various other scheduled maintenance operations. Typically, this requires the use of heavy lifting equipment, such as a crane. Unfortunately, even with the use of suitable heavy lifting equipment, the removal of the upper half of the turbine casing can still be a very dangerous undertaking. In particular, due to the large mass of a typical casing section, the slightest lateral acceleration can create a tremendous amount of force. Thus, the occurrence of an unforeseen event, such as an earthquake, equipment failure and the like, can result in significant damage to the turbine and/or significant injuries to nearby maintenance workers.
Accordingly, a system and method for lifting a casing section that provides an enhanced degree of safety would be welcomed in the art.